After thirty years of teaching political theory and constitutional law to undergraduates, Meg Mott has taken her love of argument to the general public. Her award-winning series Debating Our Rights on the first ten amendments brings civil discussions on contentious issues to public libraries and civic associations. She and Ana Voci are the creators of Free Speech for Middle Schoolers, a curriculum that teaches constitutional reasoning through real world classroom controversies.
Travel radius: statewide
Deliberation is the practice that holds our democracy together, but does it always lead to better decisions? When citizens only talk to like-minded citizens, the thinking gets stuck and the decisions tend to be more extreme. Presenter Meg Mott gives participants a chance to find new ways to think about a contentious issue using two fundamental principles of the Constitution: separation of powers and free speech.
The First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion. The Fourteenth Amendment affords all persons equal protection under the law. What happens when those two rights collide? Constitutional law scholar Meg Mott considers whether protections for religious liberties must come at the expense of non-discrimination statutes.
In Vermont’s Constitution, citizens are urged to develop the civic virtues of justice, moderation, temperance, industry and frugality. This presentation considers the role Vermont’s five civic virtues hold in our current moment.
Our seasonal “Words in the Woods” program allows Vermonters and visitors to enjoy our state’s natural beauty while listening to and reading literature in the outdoors.
Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.
We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”
We supported the Chandler Center for the Arts’ Global Connections Youth Outreach program, which highlights artists from around the world.
Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.
